


Centrifugal Motion

by Selenay



Series: Assorted Fictional Recollections (AKA the prompt fics) [7]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Femslash, Trope Bingo Round 3, Tumblr Prompt, awkward first kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 21:16:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2323448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenay/pseuds/Selenay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Why are you sitting alone in a chemistry lab at lunch? Aren't there supposed to be teachers supervising you, or something?"</p><p>"I have permission," Jemma said, much too quickly. Bugger. "I mean--"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Centrifugal Motion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bookmonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookmonster/gifts).



> Written for the AU prompts meme on Tumblr, but it got a little longer than planned. 8ookmonster asked for high school popular kid/nerd au - SKIMMONS. Title stolen shamelessly from Faith Hill's "This Kiss".

"So, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?"

Jemma jumped, startled at the voice that had come out of nowhere. A beaker of copper sulphate went flying, splashing blue liquid across the floor.

Bugger.

"Oops," the voice said, not sounding contrite at all. "Was that important?"

Jemma slowly turned, trying to pretend that everything was fine and dandy and not in any way weird.

Nope, weird. One of the popular girls was perching on the bench behind her, smiling. That was not normal.

(Jemma thought about pretending she didn't know which specific popular girl was sitting there, but that would be lying. She was very bad at lying, even to herself.)

"Skye," Jemma said. "Hello."

"Hi," Skye said cheerfully. "So, was it?"

Jemma blinked. "Was what?"

"Important. Was the blue stuff important?"

She narrowed her eyes. "I know you know what it is."

"Humour me," Skye said. "And anyway, why are you sitting alone in a chemistry lab at lunch? Aren't there supposed to be teachers supervising you, or something?"

"I have permission," Jemma said, much too quickly. Bugger. "I mean--"

"Oooh, sneaking into the lab and running experiments," Skye said, a mischievous smile curving her lips. "Now I really need to know."

Jemma sighed. Apart from last year's joint science project, they hadn't really talked during the two years she been at the school--her daydreams didn't count---but she knew enough about Skye to know that she wouldn't be easily put off. She'd keep poking and prodding until she knew everything. It would be like trying to fight the tide; pointless with the possibility of ending up...

Jemma cut that thought off quickly. She could feel the heat in her cheeks already.

"Fitz," Jemma said. "I'm making him a get well gift."

Skye lifted her eyebrows. "That's a get well gift?"

The test tubes filled with liquids in every shade of the rainbow didn't look like much, Jemma was willing to admit that. Nor did the cobbled-together bundle of electronic parts. In fact, that looked downright dangerous, and even though Fitz had assured her that it wasn't, she'd been working with it carefully. Most of Fitz's devices worked.

Usually.

There was only a four point five per cent explosion rate.

"The results are a get well gift," Jemma said. "He was looking forward to analysing the data until..."

"Until you gave him kissing disease?" Skye asked, that wicked twinkle returning to her eyes.

"No!" Jemma said. "I did not give him...that. Glandular fever. Ugh, no, that wasn't me."

"Wow, that's some serious protesting. Too much?"

Jemma almost laughed at that, because there was a bigger chance of Fitz catching it from the school baseball star than from her, but that would be betraying a trust. She might be awful at lying, but that didn't mean she could just give away other peoples' secrets willy-nilly.

She internally winced at the willy-nilly.

Before Skye could push any further, she blurted, "So, what are you doing here, anyway? I didn't think labs were your thing."

Skye froze. The wicked smile slowly melted into something sicklier.

"Would you believe me if I said that I wanted to say hi?" Skye asked, after an awkward pause.

Jemma narrowed her eyes. "No. Did someone dare you?"

"Would you be angry if I said yes?"

"Not angry, no. Not surprised, though."

Skye shrugged. "The dare was that I'd get a kiss, but clearly that was a bad plan and I--mmph!"

Jemma pulled back so fast that her foot slipped in the spilled copper sulphate, and she stumbled back against her bench. Skye was looking at her with the oddest combination of surprise and...and...something else. Jemma didn't even know why she'd done it, only that the opportunity had suddenly been there, and she wasn't usually impulsive but this was...a chance.

For the fastest, most awkward kiss ever, but it was a chance. Her lips were still tingling.

"What was that?" Skye asked.

Jemma tried to shrug casually, but her entire face felt like it was on fire. "I couldn't let you welch on a bet, could I?"

"Welch on a bet?" Skye snorted. "That sounds ridiculous in your accent."

Jemma hmph-ed. She couldn't think of a good retort to that, not one that wouldn't sound silly, anyway. She'd used up her quota of bad ideas for the day, thank you.

"I should get back to work," she said, stiffly. "There's a class in here in fifteen minutes."

"I could help you clean up," Skye said. "I mean, it's kind of my fault you spilled blue stuff everywhere."

"You don't have to."

"No, really, I do. It was a stupid dare, and you shouldn't get into trouble because of me."

Jemma shrugged, trying to look casual and noncommittal, and not at all like this was incredibly awkward. The kiss hadn't even been good. Or at least, she didn't think it so. It had been over too fast to tell.

Skye slid down from the bench, her usual warm grin back in place. It was her smile that always made Jemma's stomach feel funny, not that she'd ever admit that out loud to anyone except Snuffles T. Bear. Crushing on the popular girl was the worst high school cliché, but at least Snuffles didn't judge her for it.

"So, that was kind of a fast kiss," Skye said, stepping closer. "Do you always kiss and run?"

Jemma tilted her head curiously. "Is this flirting?"

"Maybe?" Skye said.

"Oh."

"Is that a problem?"

"I'm very bad at flirting," Jemma said. "If you thought the kiss was bad, trust me, the flirting would be worse. We should probably just stick to the cleaning up."

"I didn't think the kiss was bad," Skye said. "Just fast. We should do it again."

"Why?"

"You're the scientist. Don't you have to repeat your experiments to weed out bad data, or something?"

"Well, yes, but that's not what--mmpph."

Skye's lips were warm and she tasted like cinnamon sugar. They were nice lips, perfectly proportioned, and Jemma felt it was her scientific duty to make sure that this kiss allowed her to sample and appreciate the full effect. That thought got tangled in with some other, less scientific, ones when Skye opened her mouth and did something with her tongue that made Jemma's toes curl.

It was a very, very good kiss. 

So good, actually, that Jemma lost track of time entirely.

A softly cleared throat behind them made Jemma startle. Her foot slipped in the copper sulphate mess, she tightened her grip around Skye's waist--when had her hands found their way to Skye's hips?--and they both tumbled to the floor in a tangled heap of limbs.

While Jemma lay there, stunned, waiting for retribution to fall from the gods of chemistry teachers, Skye whispered in her ear. It took a moment for the words to penetrate her dazed brain, but when they did, Mrs Wright's angry voice faded away into unimportance.

Skye had lied about the kissing dare. Jemma smiled. The detention would be worth it, for the chance to kiss Skye again afterwards.


End file.
